Futurist

There are 390 posts filed in Futurist (this is page 17 of 39).

Hold the ice

I’ve of course seen many Facebook postings of friends and family doing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Our family was even tagged by some to participate. ALS is a good cause and I know my friends and family mean well. We were tagged by them while we were in Jamaica, though, and that got me thinking.

Kelly thought it would be fun to accept the challenge while on the beach but I kept thinking back to what our taxi driver told us the first day we arrived: Jamaica is in the midst of a serious drought. Not only that, I learned that Jamaican electricty cost is over four times what we pay for electricity. What’s worse, that electricity is generated one of the dirtiest way possible: diesel fuel. Did it really make sense to take scarce fresh water, chilled into ice using expensive and dirty fuel, and blithely dump it over our heads?

My eyes were first opened to the problem when I read former Raleigh resident Charles Fishman’s book The Big Thirst, an excellent look at how water scarcity is affecting the planet. We have some of that right here in America, of course, with California getting hard hit. At breakfast yesterday my dad was noting the steep rise in the cost of avocados. Over 90% of avocados consumed in the United States are grown in California. My recent read of all that the Colorado River supports brought home the danger that water shortages bear on our food supply.

I can’t help but think that, while ALS is indeed a worthy cause, so is problem of lack of clean water that’s plaguing the planet. Please forgive me, friends, if I politely decline your challenge.

Here’s a scary gallery of pics that illustrate the extent California drought:

Californians have been feeling the effects of drought for quite some time, with officials ordering water restrictions and pleading for residents to conserve water in all ways possible. Hell, even the "Ice Bucket Challenge" is viewed as controversial in California because it wastes water.Below the fold are some stunning photos that depict just how bad the drought has become in some areas

via Shocking photos: This is what drought looks like.

American aid worker stricken with Ebola arrives in U.S. for treatment | Reuters

I jumped into a Facebook debate today about the wisdom of bringing Ebola victim Dr. Kent Brantly to Atlanta to be treated at Emory University. While I once gave into the hysteria surrounding infectious diseases, I know what I don’t know – in essence, that infectious disease is most certainly not by bailiwick.

I am now unconcerned about Dr. Brantly and the other American Ebola victim, Nancy Writebol, being brought to the United States by trained disease professionals. It’s really the unescorted average Joes that get infected and then board a flight that scare the daylights out of me.

An American aid worker infected with the deadly Ebola virus while in Liberia was flown from West Africa to the United States on Saturday and taken to an Atlanta hospital for treatment in a special isolation unit.

A chartered medical aircraft carrying Dr. Kent Brantly touched down at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia shortly before noon.Brantly was driven by ambulance, with police escort, to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta where he will be treated in a specially equipped room.

via American aid worker stricken with Ebola arrives in U.S. for treatment | Reuters.

Solar has won. Even if coal were free to burn, power stations couldn’t compete | Giles Parkinson | Comment is free | theguardian.com

Astonishing.

Last week, for the first time in memory, the wholesale price of electricity in Queensland fell into negative territory – in the middle of the day.For several days the price, normally around $40-$50 a megawatt hour, hovered in and around zero. Prices were deflated throughout the week, largely because of the influence of one of the newest, biggest power stations in the state – rooftop solar.

“Negative pricing” moves, as they are known, are not uncommon. But they are only supposed to happen at night, when most of the population is mostly asleep, demand is down, and operators of coal fired generators are reluctant to switch off. So they pay others to pick up their output.

That’s not supposed to happen at lunchtime. Daytime prices are supposed to reflect higher demand, when people are awake, office building are in use, factories are in production. That’s when fossil fuel generators would normally be making most of their money.

via Solar has won. Even if coal were free to burn, power stations couldn't compete | Giles Parkinson | Comment is free | theguardian.com.

Segway Inventor Dean Kamen Thinks His New Stirling Engine Will Get You Off The Grid For Under $10K

For the new issue of Forbes Magazine I wrote an article about David Crane, the visionary CEO of NRG Energy. When I met Crane for lunch a couple weeks ago, no sooner had we sat down than he began singing the praises of this new contraption he had in his basement. The machine — which can generate 10 kilowatts of continuous power, fed by Crane’s natural gas line — is a new iteration of an old creation, the Stirling engine. This version, called the Beacon 10, was created after a decade of engineering by famed inventor Dean Kamen.

With the Beacon 10, says Kamen, “you don’t have to feel guilty heating up the pool.” That’s because of the highly efficient nature of the Stirling engine. First conceived in 1816 by Scottish minister Robert Stirling, the device in its simplest form consists of applying an external heat source to a closed cylinder where the cyclical expansion and compression of air inside the cylinder drives the pistons up and down. Unlike your car, where fuel is combusted inside the engine, the Stirling is an external combustion engine; it can work with any external heat source.

via Segway Inventor Dean Kamen Thinks His New Stirling Engine Will Get You Off The Grid For Under $10K.

Renewables are already beating coal

A ridiculous letter to the editor from local curmudgeon George Sharpley prompted me to pen this response:

George Sharpley thinks that investments in renewable energy have not shown “exceptional gains.” On the contrary, solar PV prices have dropped 97.2% since 1975 and ten states have now reached “grid parity” where renewable energy costs equal that of coal. But why stop there? The same market forces that make our smartphones ubiquitous and affordable are destined to make renewable energy cheaper than other energy sources.

No wonder the Koch brothers are worried. If I were in the dirty energy business I’d be worried, too.

I submitted it to the N&O today. Hope they run it.

Oh, and Sharpley mentions that China’s renewable energy production has dropped to %0.23 from a high of 40% in 1971? While that may or may not be true, China’s entire energy production in 1971 was only 3% of what it is today. It wasn’t until Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit that China’s growth began in earnest.

In case Mr. Sharpley doesn’t remember who Richard Nixon is, I’ll give him a hint: he’s the president who created the Environmental Protection Agency.

Plane truths

The Manhattan skyline appears in the windshield of a Vamoose bus.

The Manhattan skyline appears in the windshield of a Vamoose bus.

Last week I was booking a flight for my upcoming business trip to California when I discovered to my surprise that Southwest Airlines, long my airline of choice, offered fares twice as expensive as the lowest airfare. My company’s travel booking system actually wouldn’t let me book a Southwest flight because it was too expensive. I never thought I would ever get in trouble with my boss for booking Southwest, but it’s reached that point.

We’re on the road today to New York City by way of bus from DC. The bus is less than a year old, it’s quiet, clean, comfortable, and there are AC power outlets under each seat. Free WiFi, too, and we can make mobile calls anytime we want. I didn’t know what to expect when we began talking about a bus trip but I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

Putting these two ideas together, I mused to Kelly how perhaps these bus lines owe at least part of their renewed success to Southwest’s decision not to be the “bus of the skies” any more. Or perhaps travelers have simply gotten fed up with the unbelieveable hassle of air travel and have sought out more civilized means of travel.

Yes, I’d never thought I’d say it but traveling by bus may be more prefreable than travel by air. Are the high-flying days of air travel over?

Healthcare still sucks

Now that I’m in a new job, Kelly and I spent some time this evening picking out a healthcare plan. Wading through a lot of boring-as-shit details boiled it down to the plain fact that insurance companies suck even more than they used to.

What kept popping up is this whole idea of “coinsurance.” Who came up with that? Basically if you get hit by a bus and the bills top $1 million, your broken, tire-track-covered ass is on the hook for $200,000. And that’s with insurance! “With friends like these,” right?

Healthcare is still broken and the industry is still playing everyone for suckers. If there’s ever a market that is screaming for more regulation – the kind with real teeth that stands up to these kinds of horseshit shell games that are still being played – healthcare is it.

Oh, and my opinion of UnitedHealthcare hasn’t improved any, either.

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson at NCSU

Hallie and Travis with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Hallie and Travis with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson


When I got word that Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson was going to soon be speaking at N.C. State, I was determined to finagle some tickets. It seemed to be an impossible task, since he was speaking in the tiny Hunt library auditorium and it was mainly a College of Sciences event with few tickets available to the public. Even so, through a friend with close ties to the school I found out the time that the hundred or so general-admission tickets would be distributed online.

Learning that each registrant would be allowed just one guest, I got Kelly to join in my ticket quest. When that moment arrived – the second it arrived – Kelly and I were madly refreshing our browsers, waiting for a link to register for tickets. Somehow the stars aligned and both of us managed to put our names in the hat before the ticket window closed within three minutes!
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We Got A Badass Over Here: Doctor Neil deGrasse Tyson, Science and Social Responsibility | Geekquality.com

Here’s a great bio of Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. I’ve requested his memoir from the Wake County Public Library but this will hold me over until it arrives.

In the latter half of 1958, two events occurred that would have a profound effect on the science of astrophysics: one was the signing of the National Aeronautics and Space Act by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, which authorized the creation of NASA as a civilian space agency; the other, much more humble of the two, was the birth in the West Bronx of Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Oh, and we got tickets!

via We Got A Badass Over Here: Doctor Neil deGrasse Tyson, Science and Social Responsibility | Geekquality.com.

Open government study: Secrecy up – Associated Press – POLITICO.com

Now, let me get this straight. The federal government has warrantless access to every single piece of information on every single American – all in instantly-searchable databases, but when it’s time to provide legally-required documents under the Freedom of Information Act, the government can’t cough them up? What’s wrong with this picture?

Obama’s failure to keep his transparency promise has been a huge disappointment to me.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.

The administration cited more legal exceptions it said justified withholding materials and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy. Most agencies also took longer to answer records requests, the analysis found.

The government’s own figures from 99 federal agencies covering six years show that half way through its second term, the administration has made few meaningful improvements in the way it releases records despite its promises from Day 1 to become the most transparent administration in history.

In category after category — except for reducing numbers of old requests and a slight increase in how often it waived copying fees — the government’s efforts to be more open about its activities last year were their worst since President Barack Obama took office.

via Open government study: Secrecy up – Associated Press – POLITICO.com.